People, Places & Profits, Part II: A Look at the Geographic Destinations of the Am Law 200
Law firm growth is concentrated in a few areas around the country. Here we look at which cities are seeing the most interest from new entrants and how that is shaking up the markets in those regions.
October 04, 2023 at 10:44 AM
6 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com Pro
In part one of our three-part series looking back on 2022's "People, Places, & Profit," we examined partner hires, the continued leverage model shift, and debuted the Professional Staff per Lawyer (PSPL) metric. In part two, we're looking deeper into the domestic markets where Am Law 200 and NLJ 350 law firms are opening offices.
As mentioned in part one, New York and Washington, D.C., were the most active markets for Am Law 200 partner hires in 2022, which will be the case in most years. But even as law firms continue wrestling with back-to-office policies and initiatives, it didn't stop expansion into new markets. Houston edged Miami for the most office openings, although if you consider Miami & Fort Lauderdale as one broader market, southeast Florida wins top honors.
The list of markets with the most NLJ 350 openings in 2022 includes the names many would expect to see–Houston, Miami, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. But two markets near the top of the list stand out–Charlotte and San Diego. Over the past 10 years, the number of NLJ 350 firms with Charlotte offices increased by 77%, the tenth-most amongst the 44 largest domestic markets. San Diego's five new office openings in 2022 doubled California's southern-most legal market's total for the previous nine years combined. San Diego is a market similar to North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle, a secondary legal market with strong ties to innovation and biotech but with additional strengths in national defense, aerospace, and maritime. Like Raleigh Durham, San Diego has ranked anywhere from the top 5 to the top 10 in various publications' rankings of the best markets for life sciences. Boston and San Francisco remain the top U.S. markets for life sciences and biotech, and in addition to San Diego and Raleigh-Durham, Philadelphia, Orange County, and Minneapolis are strong life sciences markets.
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